Taking care of our health, we visit our primary care doctor, our dentist, but what about eye exams? Yearly eye exams are important too! Your eyes are truly the windows to your health. Eye exams at every age and stage in life is also part of taking care of your health. Improving your vision is important, but it’s only one of the reasons to get your eyes examined. Regular eye exams are an important part of diagnosing eye diseases early and preserving your vision.
Eye diseases are common and can go unnoticed for a very long time as many have no symptoms at all. A comprehensive dilated eye exam by your eye doctor is necessary to detect eye diseases in the early stage when treatment to prevent vision loss is most effective.
During the exam visual acuity, depth perception, eye alignment and movement are tested. Eye drops are used to enlarge your pupils in order to better view the inside of the eye to check for signs of health problems. High blood pressure and diabetes can be detected before your primary care doctor diagnoses it.
Early treatment is critically important in preventing common eye diseases from causing permanent vision loss and blindness. Some of these include cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy, which is the leading cause of blindness in American adults. Regular eye care can have a life changing impact on preserving the vision of millions of people. Did you know children need eye exams too? Amblyopia is the most common type of vision loss in children. It needs to be treated promptly to help avoid vision loss. A child’s first eye exam should be done by the time they are 6 months.
The number of blind and visually impaired people in the United States is estimated to double by 2030 and triple by 2050. Taking care of your vision health as part of your overall health and wellness could significantly reduce that number and improve the quality of life of millions of Americans.
